Prices

Payment Methods

Special Features

Alcohol

Full Bar

Reservations

Accepted/Not Necessary

Delivery Area

112th St. to 124th St., Third Ave. to Lennox Ave.

Profile

This venue is closed.

In September 2004, Kevin Walters set up shop among the dollar stores and taco shops of El Barrio in upper Manhattan. Billed as a supper club, Creole offers nearly Blue Note–worthy jazz acts on a tiny stage in view of the dining room on most nights. The kitchen plates a mix of Cajun classics and newfangled interpretations of Bayou cuisine like a blackened shrimp Napoleon. Though the music's lively, the dishes lack the same energy. "Louisiana" crab cakes whisper the faintest note of flavor; smothered chicken is doused in oversalted brown gravy; and catfish is swaddled in crispy, deep-fried batter that needs more than its dollop of salmon-colored rémoulade to up the taste. Gumbo is uncharacteristically bland, but revelers on dates and anniversary dinners seem too busy toe-tapping to notice. The décor's as ho-hum as the food; a sad string of neon lights snakes behind the bar, and a few wisps of chiffon droop from the ceiling. A caveat: There are sometimes cover charges on weekend nights (call in advance to find out), but it's worth it for acts like Clifton Anderson and Bobbi Henderson.
— Edna Ishayik